Red Rocket
(Picture: )It feels like a Boogie Nights spin-off. This new indie comedy from Sean “The Florida Project” Baker traces the links between poverty and the porn industry. As well as being filthy, droll and almost unbearably tense, it offers great news for anyone too broke to go to drama school.
One of its leads, Suzanna Son, looks like the young Julianne Moore and displays similar levels of talent. She was spotted, by Baker, standing outside a cinema. How’s that for a no-cost launch?
Her character is a savvy 17-year-old with real-girl teeth, who calls herself “Strawberry” and works in a Texas City coffee and donut store. Meanwhile, the film’s anti-hero is disaster-prone adult entertainment legend, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex; imagine a Greek god crossed with The Muppets’ Gonzo).
Mikey is desperate to get back to LA, but currently crashing with his estranged wife and one-time porn partner Lexi (Bree Elrod), and her mother, Lil (Brenda Deiss). One day, he claps eyes on Strawberry and decides her ass can save his. He makes money by dealing weed but is otherwise dependent on Lexi and Lil and their neighbour, Lonnie (Ethan Barbone) for bed, board and transportation. Can Mikey trick Strawberry into thinking he’s a hotshot, so he can groom her for X-rated stardom?
Red Rocket was made for roughly $1.2m but has the air of a bigger movie. Partly that’s because Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch frame the action with TV reports that track the rollercoaster progress of presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Why should we care about mendacious, disloyal, immature, self-absorbed, swaggering, sleaze-bag Mikey? Because – the film implies – Mikey’s ability to shrug off set-backs and charm the pants off those around him is part of a wider trend. Trump, in case you hadn’t noticed, is still making headlines and (whatever your views on his politics) Red Rocket makes the convincing case that men like he and Mikey should never be underestimated.
If Mikey and Strawberry throb with life, so do the minor characters. Lonnie is a one-stone weakling with a beard that resembles a merkin and a body that curves like a crescent moon. Tragi-comic, at all times, he practically steals the show.
Lexi and Lil, along with another mother-daughter team, laconic local weed kingpin Leondria and June (Judy Hill and Brittney Rodriguez), are also superb value. Lexi and Lil are religious, but only (as Mikey wryly notes) when they’re high on meth or stoned. Like the Coen brothers, Baker is a storyteller who’s allergic to reverence.
Like so many “creatives” tackling the issue of sex work, he’s also non-judgemental. The script’s very meta (there are endless jokes about how the porn industry and Hollywood run side by side). That said, at times, for example when Son appears topless, it can seem like Baker is having his donut and eating it.
Still, it’s easy to forgive him. As anyone who’s seen his iPhone breakthrough Tangerine will know, the man’s got vision. Sometimes the camera swoops in. Sometimes it lurches back. Elsewhere, we get multiple angles on Mikey, as he runs naked through the street. One close-up practically screams, “Want a better look at his saber?” All of which adds to our sense that anything could happen at any moment. Just as importantly, one of the final zooms gives lank-haired Lexi the last word. Ultimately, this is a feminist fable and that blistering climax – plus a shot of Strawberry, almost crying with happiness – shows what an eye and ear Baker has for drama. Go on, let this man fly you to the moon.
